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THE SCOTSMAN
7th May, 1863.
THE VICTORIA MAGAZINE.
London, Emily Faithfull. No. I.
OF making of magazines there is no end; and if other publishers find
their profit in issuing magazines, why should not Miss Faithfull and the
Victoria Press? The name is an admirable one, both from its right royal
connection and otherwise. It is well also that the Victoria does not seem
to be intended to be merely a "woman's rights" magazine; but to be a
story-telling, essayistical, general, and genial miscellany. In the first
number neither the verses "Victoria Regina," which are but a poor echo
of Mr Tennyson's "Alexandria," nor Miss C. G. Rossetti's "L. E. L." are
first-rate; but all the prose is good and interesting. Mr Dicey's "Social
Life in the United States" is a pleasant piece of desultory talk; you read
it
as if you were listening to the conversation of an intelligent traveller.
Here are a few of his observations on the present condition and effects of
American literature:—
"It is not the authors, but the public which is wanting in America.
Whatever may have been the case formerly, in our times you cannot
have writers unless you have readers also. Now, in the United States
the class educated enough to read books requiring a certain degree of
culture for their enjoyment is comparatively a small one. Moreover, the
short-sighted refusal of the Federal Government to consent to any law of
international copyright has told most unfavourably on native talent.
Publishers are but men, and it is not to be expected that they will pay
high prices for American works of genius when they can republish the
best of English literature for nothing. Hence there is little
encouragement
for American authors to produce works for which the demand is limited
and the remuneration inadequate. Hawthorne and Longfellow belong to
that class of authors who write as the birds sing, because they cannot
help doing so, and they are great writers not because they are born in
America, but in spite of their being born there; but there is very little
about either themselves or their works which is purely American, as
apart from English. Lowell and Wendell Holmes and Miss Harding—a
very young lady writer who seems to me to have a great career before
her—are the only American writers of real merit who, in my opinion, are
in any distinct sense native authors. At the present moment the great
public for whom an American has to write corresponds intellectually to
that portion of our own public which delights in Chambers' Miscellany
and the London Journal, which thinks Martin Tupper a poet and
considers the 'Recreations of a Country Parson' a work of profound
philosophy. No doubt, as education in the States becomes condensed
as well as diffused, a public for high class literature will grow into
existence; but its era has not yet arrived. Meanwhile it is worth noting as
a fact that no single Southern State has ever produced a literature of its
own, or any single writer even of American note. The peculiar institution,
whatever else may be its merits or demerits, does not breed men of
letters."
Mr T. A. Trollope begins a pleasant, lively, story of English life under
the
title of "Lindisfarn Chase;" and Mr R. H. Hutton contributes a readable,
but not particularly notable, essay on the new somewhat stale subject of
spirit-wrapping. A Journal kept in Egypt in 1855 and 1856 by Mr Senior,
is still interesting, though political and personal changes have in some
points lessened its original interest. An Egyptian engineer, an
accomplished and educated man, denominated Mongel Bey, gives Mr
Senior the following explanation of the moral nature of the beggars, &c.,
of Alexandria:—
"We talked of the importunate extortion of the donkey boys and beggars
of Alexandria. 'That is', said Mongel Bey, 'because you do not apply the
proper remedy. A man begs, and instead of giving him a para you give
him a piastre. "Ah," he says, "see what God has done for me; He has
sent me this Christian to give me a piastre. Perhaps it is His will that
the
Christian shall give me another, or even more than another." To avoid
the sin of rejecting the favours of Providence, he will persecute you
indefinitely, but if you turn and give him a cut with your whip, he is
satisfied. He has done his best, he has ascertained that God does not
intend him to have another piastre from you, and he submits. So as to
the donkey boy; when you give him ten times his fare he does not, as a
European would do, either feel grateful to you as a benefactor, or
despise you as a fool. He does not think about you; like the beggar, he
thinks that Providence is kind to him, and resolves to profit by its
favour
to the utmost extent. He runs after you, he implores you, he says you
are cheating him, he describes the beating he shall get from his master
for not bringing home the money that he ought; until you thrash him you
have not answered him in the only language he understands. If you had
used the stick at the beginning you would have spared yourself and him
much trouble. You may try the experiment tomorrow. Take a donkey boy
of course; his fare is twenty parces, that is half a piastre; give it to
him
confidently, and he will leave you without a remark. Give him a piastre,
and he will importune you you for more. But if you give him a couple of
piastres, he will run after you the whole day, he will wait for you
opposite
to every door which you enter. He will never leave you until you apply
your stick.'"
Mr Meredith Townsend gives a rather sombre and disheartening picture
of the "Career of Englishwomen in India," which is, in fact, no career at
all, but an enforced idleness, wearisome and monotonous in the
extreme to any active nature, till custom and climate have done their
habituating work. Mr Tom Taylor introduces by two lively sketches, one
of Garrick in the House of Commons, and the other of Johnson and the
wits at Mrs Abingdon's benefit, a series of papers on "The Great Actors
of 1775," which men of literary as well as men of theatrical tastes will
look forward with pleasure to perusing. Notes on Social Science and on
the literature of the month complete the contents of a very promising
opening number of the Victoria Magazine.
THE TIMES
(12th. October, 1867)
VICTORIA PRESS, PRINCES-STREET, HANOVER-
SQUARE.
_______________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—May I ask you to insert this letter in your columns, as I find from
various letters received during the last week that it is necessary for me
to state that I have ceased to have any connexion with the printing-office
founded by me for the employment of women, and known for some years past
as the Victoria Press. I am therefore not responsible for the publications
which are now being printed at the office in Farringdon-street,
Yours truly,
Oct 11.
EMILY FAITHFULL
_______________
THE TIMES
(14th. October, 1867)
VICTORIA PRESS.
_______________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—The letter from Emily Faithfull in your Saturday's impression is
calculated to do me serious injury, unless you permit this statement to
appear in your next issue.
For upwards of three years I have been the partner in trade of Emily
Faithfull, and managed the business of the Victoria Press.
During this time Emily Faithfull has not more than once attended at the
office to see after the "women" for whose employment she so emphatically
insists she founded the printing office.
I have purchased the business of the office which I had so superintended,
and have paid Emily Faithfull the price for it.
The publications now printed at that office consist of those that before
my purchase were printed there, with the sole addition of a weekly
newspaper which is made up of extracts from the public papers.
I alone am responsible for publications now printed at the office in
Farringdon-street, the partnership between Emily Faithfull and myself
having been dissolved.
I am most anxious that the public should know that Emily Faithfull has now
no connexion whatever with the "Victoria Press," Yours
obediently,
Oct.12.
WILLIAM WILFRED HEAD.
_______________
THE TIMES
(16th. October, 1867)
VICTORIA PRESS.
________________
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir.—It was open to Miss Faithfull to refrain from
commencing a correspondence, the imprudence of which is apparent, but not
to terminate it with a bare denial of my statement.
I reiterate that for upwards of three years Miss Faithfull
has only once visited the workwomen at the Victoria Press, and I have
young women constantly at work there for 2½
years who have never seen Miss Faithfull. So much for the question
of veracity.
In conclusion, I must express a hope that I may no longer be
subjected to these attempts to injure the Victoria Press which have been
unremittingly made since Miss Faithfull's connexion with that
establishment ceased through a dissolution of partnership to which I was
compelled to resort in self-defence.
Thanking you for your courtesy, I am, Sir,
yours obediently
WILLIAM WILFRED HEAD
Oct 15.
This correspondence must cease so far as our columns are concerned.
THE SCOTSMAN
9th June, 1870.
NEW PHASE OF WOMEN'S
RIGHTS.
A meeting of the Victoria Discussion Society was held in London on Monday
evening, at which Mr James T. Hoskins, B.A., of Oriel College, Oxford,
read a paper on "Women's Suffrage." Sir John Bowring presided.
Mr Hoskins proposed that 150 women should be elected by the women of
England, that these 150 women should sit in the House of
Lords—(laughter)—and that those representatives should be elected at every
dissolution of Parliament. England would then, he said, have really
a mixed government. Miss Emily Faithfull thought that Mr Hoskins was
a friend of Mr Bouverie's in disguise—a veritable wolf in sheep's
clothing, apparently advocating the cause of woman's franchise, but in
reality giving a weapon to the enemy to use against it on all future
occasions.
The New York Times
(16th. February, 1873)
THE BEST SOCIETY
Lecture by Emily Faithfull—The Works of the Standard Authors.
Miss Emily Faithfull lectured before a very large audience at Association
Hall yesterday afternoon, on "The Best Society." In one of Mr. Ruskin's
most striking books, she said, we were told that the gratification of
vanity lay at the root of all modern effort, and that we even desire an
education which shall enable us to ring with confidence the visitor's bell
at double-belled doors, and which shall ultimately enable us to place
double bells at our own door. The accident of birth or money may enable us
to obtain what we so wickedly covet from those base motives, but in the
society of which she intended to speak we may all take rank according to
our deserts, and we can never be outcasts except by our own fault. In the
companionship of books we enjoy many immunities which are denied us in our
intercourse with our fellow creatures. Books never intrude upon us as
unbidden guests, nor do they outstay their welcome. They are the only
friends liable to no change; they stand by us in all vicissitudes, as
comforters in sorrow, healers in sickness and companions in joy or
solitude. There are some points of resemblance between modern society and
the society of authors, and there are well-defined distinctions and
degrees as to their capacity. We don't dream of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and
Scott on the same footing: consequently, as Lord Bacon says, some books
are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some digested. In respect of
social power she admitted that genius was often hereditary but it was as
absurd to suppose that the nobility of a family continued if its genealogy
be unbroken, though father and son have been indulging age after age in
habits which involve degeneracy of race, as to take it for granted that
because a man's name is common his blood must be base, when his family
perhaps have been ennobling it from generation to generation by pureness
of moral habit. [Applause.] As acquaintance with the best society
teaches that the greatest men of mark are the men of character: and while
she did not mean that genius and morality were synonymous, she claimed
that that which really raised a country was not the aristocracy of talent
only, but the aristocracy of character, which was the true heraldry of
men. [Applause.] Now, the wise warned the young against light
people, the same caution should be given about light literature. The best
books were effective only when digested and assimilated; others not only
need no digestive, but they spoil and ruin the power of digestion and
render those who indulge in this mental drain-drinking incapable of solid
food or higher companionship. Unhappily there was a terrible increase in
light literature—it formed the staple supply of circulating libraries,
and exercised the widest and most penetrating influence. The works of pure
reason and the real productions of genius have in the end a wider range of
operation, but their effects are less immediate and less direct, for light
literature is effective by reason of its very lightness; it penetrates
where weightier matter would remain untasted. Like artificial society
there was an artificial literature, and this compelled me to enter a
protest against these thrilling nonsensical stories which were neither art
nor nature, but a diseased growth of lawless imaginings—having no claim
to the title of imagination. She regretted that even women contributed to
this pernicious literature. Bad books, like bad company, are always too
near at hand, and the impressions they create are proportionally
objectionable. What a vast gulf extended between these worthless tales and
the novels produced by writers like George Eliot, who add lustre to the
name of woman. Her latest production, Middlemarch, treats of some
of the most difficult questions in life; Silas Marner contains deep
and suggestive reflections, and long after such stories are forgotten,
will the lessons which they convey produce a noble and beneficial effect. It was lamentable that modern education despised natural history, despised
religion, not theology—that was talk about God—but it despised the
pointing or training to God's service. She maintained that true education
was the leading of human souls to what was best and making what was best
out of them. [Applause] And these two objects were always attainable by
the same means. True education had respect first, to the needs, and
secondly, to the material that it was made of. Lately there was a
disposition to ignore and discountenance modern literature as light and
ephemeral, but this was a fallacy, for in the America poet Lowell they
discovered passages equal to those in the "Ode to Immortality," the
greatest poem ever written by Wordsworth. Poetry possessed the most
refining and cultivating tendency, but should not be lightly skipped over. Men should not read books for themselves, but for the things they contain. Good literature was a burden people were anxious to avoid. It should be
studied, and often when we say of authors "what miracles of genius," we
should rather say what miracles of labor, for they have ransacked a
thousand minds and used the accumulated wisdom of ages. Miss Faithfull
concluded a very eloquent lecture by pointing out the evils consequent on
the perusal of light literature and the inestimable advantages, morally
and intellectually, to be derived from the study of the works of the
standard authors.
The New York Times
(10th. May, 1873)
Farewell Reception to Miss Emily
Faithfull.
The managers of the White Star line gave a farewell reception
to Miss Emily Faithfull on board the steam-ship Oceanic this afternoon.
About 100 ladies and gentlemen responded to the invitation.
Speeches were made by Rev. Dr. Bellows, Rev. O. F.
Frothingham, Mr. Francis D. Moulton, and others. In reply Miss
Faithfull made a few remarks, expressing her pleasure in meeting so many
warm-hearted friends in America, and stating that she would always cherish
the remembrance of her seven months' visit to this country.
A gentleman handed Miss Faithfull a gold watch made by the
women employees of the National Elgin Watch Company, of Illinois and
presented by them too her, in appreciation of her good work. Miss
Faithfull returned her sincere thanks, for the beautiful present, and said
she was sorry that she could not thank the donors in person.
The company then broke up, and previous to departure several
ladies and gentlemen tendered their adieus to Miss Faithfull, wished her a
prosperous voyage, and many expressed a hope of again seeing her at this
side of the Atlantic. Miss Faithfull will leave to day in the
Oceanic, for Liverpool.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
(15th. August, 1874)
Woman's Work.
Miss EMILY FAITHFULL
is the leading champion in England of woman's rights. But although
out of regard to her position in that respect she was awarded many
gratifying receptions by the friends of the "woman's movement" when she
visited New-York, she really has very little in common with the ladies
whose ambition it is to unwomanize their sex here. Miss FAITHFULL
has done much in her advocacy to earn for herself the unfavourable
criticism of thoughtful men and women who are not prepared to accept more
than a very small share of the theories she supports. But from the
moderation with which she has put forward her opinions, and from the
amount of practical good which she has done in extending the field of
labor for industrious women, she has earned the respect of many who do not
agree with all that she has said. In this way her observations upon
matters pertaining to the advantage of her sex are worthy of
consideration. We published the other day a brief extract from a
recently-written article by Miss FAITHFULL, in which
she points out that woman as a body have not yet realized what real work
is. "If," she says, "women claim intellectual equality with man,
they must be content to be judged by the same standard." And she
argues very rightly, that this cannot be until they accept also a higher
conception of what work is.
We take no exception to this view of the question so far as
it goes; but it does not appear to us to go far enough. It applies
very forcibly to those women who, while pretending to want to earn a
living, devote themselves to frivolous occupations. But it does not
touch the great body of hard-working women, who are barely able to obtain
sustenance from the means that are within their reach. These are the
women who most need advice and assistance, and yet it is they who seem to
receive the smallest share of consideration at the hands of feminine
reformers. The elevation of women—and of men, too, for that
matter—is a very excellent aspiration; but let the work be begun where it
is most urgently needed. Miss FAITHFULL is
content to direct her counsels at those women who "kill time by working
ridiculous little pen- wipers, bead napkins-rings, and the like, which no
one dreams of ever using." But these are not the people who want her
advice. If women who have nothing else to do, and who are therefore,
probably, not dependent on their own work for their living, choose so to
employ themselves, no harm is done. The most that can said is that
they might be better employed. But there are other women who do
deserve consideration, not to say sympathy.
Not many days ago there appeared in the daily papers the
following advertisement:
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BOWS AND
SCARFS.—Experienced hands can have steady work at home.
Apply * *
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Announcements of this kind attract a large class of people.
There are thousands of women who are but too anxious to obtain work, but
who for many reasons cannot leave their homes. These would flock to
reply to such an advertisement, as in this particular case we know that
they did. But what was the remuneration offered for the making of
the "bows and scarfs"? Twenty-five cents per dozen! Men know
the price which they have to pay when they want to purchase such an
article, but few are aware that the hard-working women who made them did
so at the rate of about two cents apiece. We find, too, that to make
a dozen of these would be a very good day's work, a dozen and a half a
hard day's work—more, in fact, than a woman with home duties of any kind
to attend to could accomplish unless she devoted the greater part of the
night also to her labour. Such instances of ill-paid woman's work
could be multiplied to almost any extent, but we mention this one only to
indicate a direction in which there is much more need for reform in the
case of women who while away their idle hours by making pen-wipers and
napkin rings. There are numbers of women who thoroughly comprehend
what real work is, and who are in much more need of having the lot
improved than those who can afford to waste their time in trifles.
We do not for a moment doubt the sincerity of women like Miss FAITHFULL,
but it is too often evident, and this is one more example, that their
efforts are misdirected. If they would honestly and reasonably
devote themselves to advancing the interests of the women who, in spite of
hard work, are still struggling to live, they would meet with more support
from society than they get by propagating abstract theories the elevation
of their sex.
THE SCOTSMAN
7th October, 1878.
MISS EMILY FAITHFULL
IN EDINBURGH.
On Saturday afternoon Miss Emily Faithfull delivered her lecture on
"Modern Extravagance," in the Freemason's Hall, Edinburgh. There was
a large attendance. Sir James Falshaw, who occupied the chair,
pointed out, in introducing Miss Faithfull, that no time could be more
opportune than the present for the delivery of such a lecture. Miss
Faithfull in the course of her lecture, described the different aspects in
which the extravagance of the day manifested itself, showing that no class
was free from this burden, from the mill girl who paid £3 for a feather to
the peer who was put to shifts to maintain his position in advance of the
mere moneyed man. One of the causes of the prevalence of this
extravagance, it was pointed out, was the credit system; and against the
continuance of this practice a strong protest was made. In
conclusion, Miss Faithfull advocated a return by all to a less pretentious
style of living, and exhorted every one to do what they could to bring
back a healthier tone to society. A vote of thanks was given to the
lecturer on the motion of Bishop Cotterill.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
(28th. November, 1882)
WIDENING WOMAN'S USEFULNESS.
THE INVESTIGATIONS AND WORK OF MISS
EMILY FAITHFULL FOR HER SEX.
The lecture to be delivered Friday night, in Chickering Hall, by Miss
Emily Faithfull, promises much of entertainment and of instruction.
In England, where Miss Faithfull has labored constantly for a period of
five and twenty years to enlarge the sphere of remunerative employment for
women, whatever she may have to say upon this interesting subject is
listened to with marked attention. Her experience and her practical
views are a guarantee that no ordinary treatment will be given "The
Changed Position of Women in the Nineteenth Century," the subject on which
she proposes to lecture. In prosecuting her work, Miss Faithfull has
encountered no small obstacles from the English trades, by whom every
effort has been made to prevent the introduction of women to the fields of
labor so tyrannically controlled by the unions. They have been
overcome, however, women are now employed throughout England in a variety
of mechanical pursuits, and the fact has been established that sex is no
bar to the display of cleverness and skill.
Miss Faithfull's attention was first drawn to this idea by
the investigation which was made by a committee appointed by the National
Association for the Promotion of Science to examine into the condition of
the working women of England. Among her associates on that committee
were Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Houghton, the Bishop of London, and Miss
Adelaide Proctor. A mass of valuable information was acquired as to
what women could do, what they should do, and what the opposition of the
trades prevented them from doing. The outgrowth of the
investigation, so far as she was concerned, was the establishment of a
printing-office in London in 1860. Here several women were collected
together and instructed in the art of typography. The trades
regarded this as an innovation that should not be tolerated, and devised
numerous schemes for breaking up the office. Bribery was resorted to
and one of the men in the press-room destroyed a large amount of valuable
machinery. Wealthy friends came to the rescue, the loss was made
good, and the unique enterprise grew into public favor and became
prosperous. Some years ago Mr. Houghton, of Cambridge, Mass.,
visited England and inspected this little office. He was so
impressed with what he saw that upon his return he introduced the
employment of women into his own extensive printing establishment.
When Miss Faithfull came to America 10 years ago she found women employed
in every branch of the business of this well-known publishing-house.
The education of women in music, in architecture, and in the higher arts
generally has also been the purpose of Miss Faithfull. With what success,
she will tell in her lecture. She will describe the various
directions in which women can find employment, and will detail a number of
interesting facts in regard to the educational development of her sex.
In her work among Englishwomen Miss Faithfull has received the
encouragement of the Queen and of many eminent members of Parliament.
Her lectures have become popular with all classes of society, and her
writings are widely read. Her novel entitled "Change upon Change" is
praised for its clever pictures of the racial life of the higher classes.
The Victoria Magazine, a publication having a good circulation, was
commenced by her for the purpose of giving a wider publicity to her views
upon woman's capabilities and training. She will devote herself
while in this country to the study of American women and to lecturing in a
number of the larger cities. Her investigations will no doubt result
in much good, and will lead to the better understanding of a subject which
is yearly attracting more attention.
NEW YORK TIMES
(2nd. December, 1882)
WHY WOMAN SHOULD WORK.
MISS EMILY FAITHFULL'S VIEWS ON THE
DUTIES OF HER OWN SEX.
Miss Emily Faithfull, of London, addressed an audience in
Chickering Hall last evening on "The Changed Position of Women in the
Nineteenth Century."
Col. Frederick A. Conkling introduced Miss Faithfull, who read her lecture
from manuscript in a clear and distinct voice, and with easy
self-possession.
Many of her expressions were warmly applauded. She took the ground that
women should work as well as men, and said that the idea that a woman
unsexed herself by striving to earn her living was not only erroneous but
ridiculous. Women do not have the advantages and appliances that men have
in
the various branches of industry. The inexorable laws of custom deter
women from doing many things which ought to be perfectly legitimate for
them to
do. In the face of the increasing preponderance of women in the world,
Miss Faithfull said that it was cruel to put obstacles in the way of their
learning
some self-sustaining profession or trade. There are 5 or 6 per cent. more
women than men, and unless women were prepared to encourage or advocate
polygamy they must acquire the means of supporting themselves. The
lecturer drew particular attention to the frequent instances where the
widows and
children of well-to-do men were suddenly left to shift for themselves
without homes and without money. Such painful occurrences emphasize the
necessity of educating women early in life to earn their own bread.
Parents considered it their duty to prepare their sons for the battle of
life; why should
they not be equally considerate of their daughters?
Miss Faithfull urged that it would be a good thing for humanity if each
and every girl could be taught a trade or a profession early in life. No
girl had the right
to assume that she would be clothed, fed, and cared for always. She should
be prepared to go through life as a bread-winner if need be. There was a
great
difference between the past and the present acceptations of the term
gentlewoman. In olden time the term meant one who exercised an active
supervision
of the food and clothing of the entire estate. The very name of "lady"
signified bread-giver. The gentlewoman of the present day, however, holds
herself as
being too fine for work. The fact of her being a "lady" must needs exempt
her from doing any kind of work. "Idleness," said Miss Faithfull, "is
always
discreditable in a woman." The lecturer had no objections to innocent
social amusements, but she strongly condemned the growing tendency among
society women to give themselves up entirely to the pursuit of frivolous
pleasures. Without the proper employment of their natural abilities and
energies,
young women are left to drift helplessly with the current of life, easy
victims of every temptation that modern social life presents. Idleness is
distasteful even
to indolent natures, and while the virtuous society girl would turn with a
shudder from work she would accept a flirtation as a perfect godsend. It
had been
repeatedly said that there never was any evil in the world but that a
woman was at the bottom of it, but Miss Faithfull said the facts of
history would show
that no great good had ever been accomplished in the world that woman did
not have a hand in it. She did not believe in the notion that man was the
superior creature and woman merely his shadow. She maintained that each
sex find its proper and equal sphere and that men and women were designed
to be co-workers. "A woman cannot he a worthy helpmeet to a man," said
she, "if she is his slave." The female mind was fully as capable of
cultivation as
the male mind, and the same tree of knowledge would afford mental food for
both. Miss Faithfull spoke of the gratifying results of the educational
reform
movement among the women in England. She touched briefly upon the various
branches of industry in which women are engaged and commended the
work of the Ladies' Decorative Art Society of this City. In London, she
said that women were making their way successfully into the several
professions
and trades, and a large number of female clerks, telegraphs operators,
copyists, &c., were employed in the English civil service. She poke of her
own
successful experience with female type-setters, and said that Queen
Victoria had especially commended typographical work done by women. As for
the
bugbear that a woman's chances for matrimony were decreased by her taking
her place among the working people of this world, Miss Faithfull said that
if
a man considered a wife who would not be a drag upon him, the fact of her
being able to earn her own living would not detract from her value in his
eyes.
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